This invention relates generally to print cartridges mountable on printer carriages, and more specifically to mechanical techniques for preventing inkjet print cartridges from being used with non-compatible printers.
The ability to ship and store print cartridges prior to installation on a printer has many benefits to the manufacturer, distributor and user. Similarly the life of a printer can be extended by providing removable print cartridges as well as replaceable print cartridges. However, the proliferation of such removable and replaceable print cartridges has created many problems arising from inadvertent use of similar appearing print cartridges in non-compatible printer carriages.
Moreover the use of different types of inks, print media, and product implementations (facsimile machines, monochrome printers, color printers, copiers, multiple-function printers/fax/copiers, single chute carriages for holding different types of print cartridges, multiple chute carriages, cartridges capable of carriage refill, cartridges capable of periodic on-carriage ink replenishment, continuous on-carriage ink replenishment systems) has created the need to differentiate between similar appearing print cartridges which have different intended uses.
The problems of maintenance and warranty have also become aggravated when similar appearing print cartridges have been customized under joint development agreements for different end use implementations, some of which require mounting on standard carriages which move across a print zone while others are mounted alone or in groups on stationary carriages. Value added resellers want assurances that general use print cartridges outside of their control cannot be inadvertently used in their customized printing systems. In order to be able to provide some guarantee of quality, availability, warranty, maintenance and support, there is a growing need to uniquely identify print cartridges as well as to uniquely identify printer carriages and individual carriage chutes in a simple mechanical way. Electronic identification systems tend to be more expensive and are sometimes less reliable than mechanical encoding systems.
Conventional label identification systems are extensively used but are often ignored by users and distributors, and even high visibility color coding of print cartridges has not provided satisfactory results.
A prior mechanical technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,422 entitled METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PREVENTING UNINTENDED USE OF PRINT CARTRIDGES wherein a first level tab system controls initial insertion of a print cartridge, and a second level barrier system controls a final mounting step into a printer carriage. The implementation required different customized mechanical parts on two separate portions of the print cartridge as well as two corresponding separate portions of a carriage chute. Also there was a risk of tampering with the first level tabs by breaking them off in order to alter the ID system.
Another prior mechanical technique has been employed by Lexmark which uses a rudimentary dual system where a large upstanding cap extending about one and one/half centimeters above the print cartridge has a central convex protrusion for one group of cartridges used in Xerox and Compaq printers and a central concave recess for another group of cartridges used in Lexmark printers. A second level of identification is provided with a pair of equally spaced apart narrow slots on the Xerox and Compaq print cartridges which are respectively located at different lateral positions relative to the central convex protrusion. Very few combinations are possible with this system, and it requires excessive space on both the print cartridge and the carriage.